-
World of Wonders
- In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
- Narrated by: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
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World of Wonders
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Publisher's summary
Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year
A Kirkus Prize Finalist for Nonfiction
A Southern Book Prize Finalist
An NPR Best Book of 2020
An Esquire Best Book of 2020
A BookPage Best Book of 2020
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2020
A Wall Street Journal Holiday Gift Pick for 2020
An Indie Next Pick, September 2019
A Publishers Weekly "Big Indie Book of Fall 2020"
A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020
A Literary Hub "Most Anticipated Book of 2020
A Ralph Lauren Summer Reading Recommendation
A Garden & Gun Summer Reading Recommendation
A Bustle "Best Book of Fall 2020
Named a "Most Anticipated Book of 2020" by The Millions
An Alma "Favorite Book for Fall 2020"
A Literary Hub "Recommended Climate Read for September 2020"
A Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Reading Recommendation for Fall 2020
From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction - a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.
As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted - no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape - she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.
“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.
Warm and lyrical, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy.
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Critic reviews
"American poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil's voice is gentle as she tells listeners how her love of nature developed in childhood." --AudioFile Magazine
"Nezhukumatathil's investigations…range across the world, from a rapturous rendering of monsoon season in her father's native India to her formative years in Iowa, Kansas, and Arizona, where she learned from the native flora and fauna that it was common to be different . . . The writing dazzles with the marvel of being fully alive." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"Nezhukumatathil's essays…are in turn humorous, poignant, relatable, passionate (especially when she's bemoaning disappearing species and habitats), and always interesting." --Booklist
"Nezhukumtathil applies her skill as a poet to a scintillating series of short essays on nature. She takes up topics that fascinate her - the bizarre-looking potoo birds of Central and South America; corpse flowers, with their rich colors and acrid odor - and connects them to her own experience of the world.... Throughout, she vividly describes sounds, smells, and color - the myriad hues of a 'sea of saris' from India - and folds in touches of poetry. Fumi Nakamura's lush illustrations add to the book's appeal. Readers of Terry Tempest Williams and Annie Dillard will appreciate Nezhukumtathil's lyrical look at nature." --Publishers Weekly
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Story4 out of 5 stars 72
This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years - a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A famous writer describes her life growing up in foster care
- By Nancy C. on 12-21-18
By: Paula McLain
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The Turtle of Oman
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Aref does not want to move to Michigan. He's sure the kids there won't like him. Also, he has everything he needs right where he is! But Sidi has another point of view. Sidi says Aref will go and come back. Just like a falcon or the turtles of Oman, he'll travel far and make his way home to Muscat. So Aref sets out to say good-bye to everything he loves. Good-bye to Mish-Mish, Diram, Sulima, dunes, Sidi…. But how can he stand it?
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A long goodbye
- By K Gray on 02-03-24
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
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Freckled
- A Memoir of Growing Up Wild in Hawaii
- By: T. W. Neal
- Narrated by: Sara Malia Hatfield
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 273
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 245
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 243
We live in a place everyone calls paradise. Sure, Kauai’s beautiful, with empty beaches, drip-castle mountains, and perfect surf...but we’ve been "camping" for six months, eating boiled chicken feed for breakfast, and wearing camouflage clothes so no one sees us trespassing in our jungle hideout. The cockroaches leave rainbow colors all over everything from eating the crayons we left outside the tent, and now a tractor is coming to scrape our camp into the river. Standing in front of the tent in my nightgown, I know my own truth: I just want to be normal.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Zero to Hero
- By Allen B. Galiza on 08-13-19
By: T. W. Neal
-
Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 948
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 855
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 853
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
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Poemcrazy
- Freeing Your Life with Words
- By: Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Her Words, Her Voice...
- By S. Schultz on 11-21-14
-
Apocalypse Child
- A Life in End Times - a Memoir
- By: Flor Edwards
- Narrated by: Flor Edwards
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
For the first 13 years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the Children of God. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor would be 13 years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where they would eventually disband, leaving Flor to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around her.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A truly unique background and story
- By Asaph on 04-13-18
By: Flor Edwards
-
Like Family
- Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 78
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years - a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A famous writer describes her life growing up in foster care
- By Nancy C. on 12-21-18
By: Paula McLain
-
The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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Habibi
- By: Naomi Shihab Nye
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
For 14-year-old Liyana Abboud, life in St. Louis, Missouri is perfect. She loves shopping in the nearby stores and walking down streets where she knows everyone. Even better, she has just had her first kiss. But her father is moving the family to Jerusalem - the land where he was born. Suddenly Liyana finds herself a stranger in a threatening world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very good Performance
- By Muhammad on 04-07-15
By: Naomi Shihab Nye
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The Emissary
- By: Yoko Tawada, Margaret Mitsutani - translator
- Narrated by: Julian Cihi
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 69
Japan, after suffering from a massive irreparable disaster, cuts itself off from the world. Children are so weak they can barely stand or walk: the only people with any get-go are the elderly. Mumei lives with his grandfather Yoshiro, who worries about him constantly. They carry on a day-to-day routine in what could be viewed as a post-Fukushima time, with all the children born ancient - frail and gray-haired, yet incredibly compassionate and wise. Mumei may be enfeebled and feverish, but he is a beacon of hope, full of wit and free of self-pity and pessimism.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Tedious. Waste of time.
- By Kenneth McGovern on 02-17-19
By: Yoko Tawada, and others
-
B Is for Beer
- By: Tom Robbins
- Narrated by: Laura Silverman
- Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed 36 billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Deeply Disappointed
- By Joseph on 07-07-09
By: Tom Robbins
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Mustique Island
- A Novel
- By: Sarah McCoy
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 176
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 150
It’s January 1972 but the sun is white hot when Willy May Michael’s boat first kisses the dock of Mustique Island. Tucked into the southernmost curve of the Caribbean, Mustique is a private island that has become a haven for the wealthy and privileged. Its owner is the eccentric British playboy Colin Tennant, who is determined to turn this speck of white sand into a luxurious neo-colonial retreat for his rich friends and into a royal court in exile for the Queen’s rebellious sister, Princess Margaret.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Vivid Imagery
- By GeauxGetLit on 07-24-22
By: Sarah McCoy
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Until I Say Good-Bye
- My Year of Living with Joy
- By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
- By Bonny on 03-19-13
By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, and others
-
The Great Spring
- Writing, Zen, and This ZigZag Life
- By: Natalie Goldberg
- Narrated by: Natalie Goldberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
What does it take to have a long writing life? Drawing on her years of writing, teaching, and practicing Zen, Natalie Goldberg shares the experiences that have opened her to new ways of being alive - experiences that point the way forward in our lives and our writing. The "great spring" of this book title refers to the great rush of energy that arrives when you think no life will ever come again - the early yellow flowering forsythia, for example.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An enjoyable insight
- By Leigh A on 05-22-23
By: Natalie Goldberg
-
Good Poems
- Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor
- By: Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and others
- Narrated by: Garrison Keillor
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 163
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 152
Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendence. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendence.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Very good, but. . .
- By KSmith on 01-27-11
By: Emily Dickinson, and others
-
Vampires in the Lemon Grove
- Stories
- By: Karen Russell
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Joy Osmanski, Kaleo Griffith, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 282
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 252
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 253
In the collection's marvelous title story, two aging vampires in a sun-drenched Italian lemon grove find their hundred-year marriage tested when one of them develops a fear of flying. In "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979", a dejected teenager discovers that the universe is communicating with him through talismanic objects left in a seagull's nest. "Proving Up" and "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis" find Russell veering into more sinister territory.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Stylish modern magic realism
- By Ryan on 04-10-13
By: Karen Russell
-
She Got Up Off the Couch
- By: Haven Kimmel
- Narrated by: Haven Kimmel
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 274
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 187
When we last saw Zippy, she was oblivious to the storm that was brewing in her home. Her mother, Delonda, had literally just gotten up off the couch and ridden her rickety bicycle down the road. Her dad was off somewhere, gambling or "working." And Zippy was lost in her own fabulous world of exploring the fringes of Moorland, Indiana.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Great fun !!
- By Kim on 04-20-11
By: Haven Kimmel
-
Come to the Edge
- A Memoir
- By: Christina Haag
- Narrated by: Christina Haag
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 107
When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep-school friends. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Thoroughly enjoyed Come to the Edge
- By CapeCodLady on 11-15-19
By: Christina Haag
-
Braver Than You Think
- Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime
- By: Maggie Downs
- Narrated by: Rachel Fulginiti
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
As a child, Maggie Downs often doubted that she would ever possess the courage to visit the destinations her mother dreamed of one day seeing. "You are braver than you think," her mother always insisted. That statement would guide her as, over the course of one year, Downs backpacked through seventeen countries - visiting all the places her mother, struck with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, could not visit herself - encountering some of the world's most striking locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not Ypur Typical Ttavel Destinations
- By Pammerpower on 06-12-20
By: Maggie Downs
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia. Nezhukmatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory.
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson has lived in the thrall of a cast of others—her parents and maternal grandmother, jazz luminaries, writers, artists, athletes, and stars. These are the figures who thrill and trouble her, and who have made up her sense of self as a person and as a writer. In her much-anticipated follow-up to Negroland, Jefferson brings these figures to life in a memoir of stunning originality, a performance of the elements that comprise and occupy the mind of one of our foremost critics.
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
- By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
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Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the intimate and inspiring story of her year-long encounter with a snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, she becomes an astute and amused observer of the snail's surprising nocturnal adventures as it lives in a flowerpot on her nightstand. Intrigued by the snail’s clear decision making abilities, hydraulic locomotion, mysterious courtship, and molluscan anatomy, Bailey takes the listener deep into the life of this tiny amazing animal. With wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts a remarkable journey of human and gastropod survival and resilience, and shows how the natural world illuminates our own human existence. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burrough Medal Award for Natural History, and a National Outdoor Book Award. If you enjoyed Wesley the Owl, The Guest Cat, and Marley & Me, you'll enjoy this unique interspecies audiobook listen.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is an unexpected wonder. The quiet virtues of the snail reflect the quiet voyage of the author.
- By Frances on 08-03-15
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How Far the Light Reaches
- A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
- By: Sabrina Imbler
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: How Far the Light Reaches invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live. Conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth.
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2 out of 5 stars
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THIS IS A MEMOIR
- By Joseph Gee on 03-17-23
By: Sabrina Imbler
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Treasure
- Seed Savers, Book 1
- By: Sandra Smith
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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It's 2077. There's no apocalypse, but some things are different. Things like the weather, the Internet, and food. In 12-year-old Clare's world, blueberry is just a flavor and apples are found only in fairy tales. Then one day Clare meets Ana, an older woman who teaches her about seeds and real food. Ana tempts Clare with the notion that food exists other than the square, packaged food she has always known. With Ana's guidance, Clare and her friends learn about seeds and gardening despite suspicions that such actions are illegal.
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3 out of 5 stars
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real food is a thing of the past
- By Midwestbonsai on 12-20-17
By: Sandra Smith
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The Living Great Lakes
- Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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If fresh water is to be treasured, the Great Lakes are the mother lode. No bodies of water can compare to them. One of them, Superior, is the largest lake on earth, and the five lakes together contain a fifth of the world's supply of standing fresh water. Their surface area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined. They are so vast that they dominate much of the geography, climate, and history of North America. In one way or another, they affect the lives of tens of millions.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, problematic narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 11-17-19
By: Jerry Dennis
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Bite by Bite
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In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia. Nezhukmatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It's 2077. There's no apocalypse, but some things are different. Things like the weather, the Internet, and food. In 12-year-old Clare's world, blueberry is just a flavor and apples are found only in fairy tales. Then one day Clare meets Ana, an older woman who teaches her about seeds and real food. Ana tempts Clare with the notion that food exists other than the square, packaged food she has always known. With Ana's guidance, Clare and her friends learn about seeds and gardening despite suspicions that such actions are illegal.
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3 out of 5 stars
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real food is a thing of the past
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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If fresh water is to be treasured, the Great Lakes are the mother lode. No bodies of water can compare to them. One of them, Superior, is the largest lake on earth, and the five lakes together contain a fifth of the world's supply of standing fresh water. Their surface area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined. They are so vast that they dominate much of the geography, climate, and history of North America. In one way or another, they affect the lives of tens of millions.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, problematic narrator
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By: Jerry Dennis
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Inciting Joy
- Essays
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- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it. Taking a clear-eyed look at injustice, political polarization, and the destruction of the natural world, Gay shows us how we might resist, how the study of joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. In fact, it just might help us survive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully told truths
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The Talk
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn’t have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are. In this immersive audiobook adaptation—with wall-to-wall sound design, an expansive music soundtrack, and full-cast narration including the author and his son—Bell uses his sharp humor to examine how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood.
By: Darrin Bell
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Slow Noodles
- A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes
- By: Chantha Nguon
- Narrated by: Kim Green, Clara Kim
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
A haunting and beautiful memoir from a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but who finds hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Remarkable story
- By J. Howlett on 10-18-24
By: Chantha Nguon
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In Watermelon Sugar
- By: Richard Brautigan
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 380
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 327
iDEATH is a place where the sun shines a different color every day and where people travel to the length of their dreams. Rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works, they lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. In this book, Richard Brautigan discovers and expresses the mood of the counterculture generation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Shout Out To My English Professor
- By Alyx on 05-25-21
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Poet Warrior
- A Memoir
- By: Joy Harjo
- Narrated by: Joy Harjo
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 144
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 126
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Story5 out of 5 stars 126
Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A wonderful spiritual journey!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-19-22
By: Joy Harjo
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Dances
- A Novel
- By: Nicole Cuffy
- Narrated by: Samya De Meo
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10
At twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a ballet dancer when she’s promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She’s instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her “inspirational” role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company’s history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn’t belong.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great ballet book good story
- By J. Davis on 09-20-23
By: Nicole Cuffy
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Starstruck
- A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark
- By: Sarafina El-Badry Nance
- Narrated by: Sarafina El-Badry Nance
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
As a child, Sarafina El-Badry Nance spent nearly every evening with her father gazing up at the flickering stars and pondering what secrets the night sky held. The daughter of an American father and Egyptian mother who both pushed her toward academic excellence, Sarafina dreamed of becoming an astronomer and untangling the mysteries of the stars overhead. But it wasn’t long before she was told, both explicitly and implicitly, that girls just weren’t cut out for math and science.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Very, very misleading title
- By MGGGK9 on 11-29-23
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Future Tense
- How We Made Artificial Intelligence—and How It Will Change Everything
- By: Martha Brockenbrough
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Human history has always been shaped by technology, but AI is like no technology that has come before it. Unlike the wheel, combustion engines, or electricity, AI does the thing that humans do best: think. Acclaimed author and teacher Martha Brockenbrough guides listeners through the development of this world-changing technology, exploring how AI has touched every corner of our world, including education, healthcare, work, politics, war, international relations, and even romance.
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The Salt Path
- A Memoir
- By: Raynor Winn
- Narrated by: Raynor Winn
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 290
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 255
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 253
Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not happy…..
- By Debbie Frizzell on 09-12-21
By: Raynor Winn
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The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
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Our Migrant Souls
- A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”
- By: Héctor Tobar
- Narrated by: André Santana
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Plays in the idea of “we are the victims.”
- By Luis F. Ruiz on 02-15-24
By: Héctor Tobar
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Mexican WhiteBoy
- By: Matt de la Pena
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 185
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he's not "built", his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce that any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball, but the boy's not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. Ball ends up so far out of the strike zone it's laughable. But at his private school, they don't expect much else from him. Danny's brown. Half-Mexican brown....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Where does a Mexican whiteboy fit in?
- By Thin Lizzy on 03-19-21
By: Matt de la Pena
What listeners say about World of Wonders
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. Henderson
- 01-21-23
Loved every minute
I found this highly enjoyable. It felt full of story while tying in images of the natural world. Lovely little memoir moments.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Karen
- 06-22-21
Wonderful, magical book.
This was an amazing story. My daughter and I absolutely loved it. It was just a magical book. And I also learned so much about so many things.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Gwen
- 07-19-22
not my taste
sorry, I found it a little insipid. The reader's high pitched, sing-songy voice didn't help
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lili
- 10-25-20
Lovely, lyrical essays of the natural world 🌲🐞🦎🦋🐙🐋
Beautifully read by the author herself, this collection of essays engages the reader in both the wonders of the natural world and the author's personal experiences.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christy C
- 08-19-21
My favorite book in forever!!
This book was like eating a dessert, every time I listened to a new chapter. The imagery with which the author writes, paired with the amazing tone and phrasing of every word that she speaks, made this such a delight to enjoy. I love it so much that I am buying six copies to gift as Christmas presents this year, either for my nature lovers, or for my word lovers. It just so happens that I am both a lover of imagery-rich written words, as well as flora and fauna. I can’t wait to listen to it all over again with my sons as part of our homeschooling curriculum this year! A forever fan!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Fact addict
- 01-25-21
Interesting approach to a nonfiction book...
...narration by the author is usually somewhere between bad and terrible, but this one is striking. This author has a wonderful, capable, soothing voice.
The bouncing back and forth between biography and natural history is a little odd, but interesting. The first thing I did was to check out both the author and her husband: each is notable in their own way.
I rather enjoyed the flipping back and forth between the first and third person narrative once I got used to it.
I am also aware of the firefly disappearance in the US, and have been quite distressed by it for the last few years. I am hopeful, however.
I will recommend this book, however, with a warning that the structure is a little.... odd.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lesley ann
- 03-22-22
Beautiful stories-sensitive, delightful narration
I couldn't resist starting as soon as I purchased it. what a lovely book..
🦋🌿World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments
🌸 Aimee Nezhukumatathil's sensitive and wondrous narration.. 🐞🌼... was so delightful...
.. a splendidly enriching experience.. the kind of book and narration one will to listen to again and again🌿
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Barbara
- 06-02-21
Her voice alone will make you love listening
She has a beautiful love for animals. If you love nature, you will appreciate her storytelling and passion. It is beautiful for sure.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MRaws
- 05-23-24
EXPAND your mind unbelievably!Please read or listen to it!
This is a book that expands your mind and heart! If you love, nature and fear for our world, this is a brilliant book. It makes you understand why you need to fight for our environment. The author/narrator is awe inspiring. It breaks my heart when she talks about children who have never seen a firefly or butterfly because of tv and video games.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alice K.
- 08-28-24
Buy hard copy
Hey just an FYI to everyone the physical copy has more chapters. As a person who likes to read and listen at the same time this was an upsetting find. Great/fantastic book otherwise
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